How to DIY Digital Marketing Efforts (Small Business Guide)

When it comes to digital marketing, it’s always best to consult with an expert firm or individual with vast knowledge of the business. Because, as you are about to find out, digital marketing is like running a second business on top of your existing business. But if you insist on doing it yourself, here are a few tips to get you set up and running.

Top DIY Digital Marketing Strategies 2017

If it’s a matter of money that is keeping you from hiring a professional, we suggest seeking a consultation, at the very least, so you can have an idea of when you might need to bring someone else on board. Companies like BingDigital are leading the way in the digital marketing game, and you’d do well to reach out to them for some support.

In the meantime, here are several ways you can set up your digital marketing efforts to get the ball rolling for your company and brand.

1) Putting Customers First

When you sit down to plan for your digital marketing campaign, you want to consider your customer from every angle. You want to write down exactly who it is that you are targeting with your marketing campaign. If you can’t answer this question, you might want to consult an expert digital marketing company to help you narrow down your market segment.

Having a product or service does not mean you have a customer. You need to do a lot of work at this stage of the campaign to ensure you can find your ideal customer.

Ask yourself questions such as:

Is the customer male or female?

In what age range does the customer fall?

How do I envision the customer using this product or service?

How often can the customer buy from me?

Where is the value in my product for the customer?

How will the customer find my product or service?

When can I launch this campaign to the customer?

How much is the customer willing to pay for this product or service?

In what activities does the customer like to engage?

Where does the customer live?

How do I think the customer will interpret that vision?

Where does the customer work?

Does the customer have a family or is the customer single?

These are just a few of the questions you need to ask yourself when you are planning a digital marketing campaign. Every advice column in the world on digital marketing will tell you to ignore the urge to say “everyone is a potential customer.”

Everyone is not a potential customer. Believing that will cause you to fail before you even get started. Take some time on this step to ensure you know who it is you are selling to so you can customize your digital marketing efforts just for them.

2) Planning Your Campaign

Once you know who you are going to be marketing to, you need to consider how you are going to market to that person. For example, if your product or service is focusing on serving the elderly, Facebook and Instagram ads might not be the best course of action to bring those customers to your doorstep.

However, if your targeted customer segment is millennials, by all means, Facebook and Instagram are the way to go. It can be difficult to know what the right answer is when it comes to asking questions about what is the right way to go about digital marketing. The right way to go about digital marketing is to have patience and be flexible in your approach.

It’s worth noting that a digital marketing campaign is not just made up of social media posts. There is a lot more to it than that. We’ll look at each piece here.

Social media is the most widely used and accessible form of advertising today. For marketing purposes, however, it can take some time to build an audience base using social media. The differences between advertising and marketing are noteworthy: advertising means splashing sales and products all over the place, while marketing is more a subtle and gradual build.

Marketing makes people trust you. Advertising makes people think you just want them to buy something off you. Social media can help you build that trust because you will plan to post regularly with recent and relevant content for your potential customers.

Get your social media accounts set up as soon as possible – even if your business isn’t up and running yet. You’ll want to be able to promote your new product or service to gain some traction even if it isn’t complete yet.

Content marketing is a great way to drive traffic to your website or store. Content marketing works in conjunction with social media, but rather than just sharing pictures and quotes, content marketing requires businesses to share information and stories which build their brand through the telling of those stories. Good content marketing requires effort.

Writing blogs and articles can take a lot of time, but they need to be a part of any good marketing campaign. It’s how you weave the human side into your online business. Customers want to get to know the businesses and the owners of those businesses. It’s a given that companies will have blogs these days, so don’t slack on that piece. You should set aside a few hours a week to work on your content marketing efforts. It can pay off big time.

Google Adwords is another widely used digital marketing tactic that almost every expert marketing agency will tell you to set up. It’s tricky to know what words to consider for your Google Adwords campaign. An expert digital marketing agency will be able to help you nail down exactly what you need to do, but if you are into trial and error and don’t mind spending a few dollars to try this service out for yourself, then plan to use Google Adwords as part of your digital marketing campaign.

You’ll need to set up an account with Google and then decide on a budget. You can do some research about what keywords to use and how to incorporate those keywords into your blog and other social media posts for maximum impact. Adwords only takes your money if your ad is clicked on by a potential customer, so if you aren’t getting any clicks, you aren’t spending any money, but you also aren’t making any money.

If you find that your ad is not getting clicked within a short period, try rewording it or changing it up. It can take a lot of trial and error to set up Adwords properly, but some people are up for the challenge.

3) Other Areas to Consider

When it comes to digital marketing, the sky’s the limit on how much time and effort you can expend trying to acquire customers. In trying to acquire those customers, you’ll want to ensure you have a proper sales funnel setup through your website and have a database where you can store customer information.

It’s important to have a opt in or something to entice visitors to your website to give up their emails so you can have a mailing list. A mailing list is important so you can conduct email marketing campaigns. But be careful not to overload customers with information and product promotion. The attrition rates of overzealous email marketers are high.

You want to find a balance between giving your customer a good amount of information and opportunity to buy your product or service and leaving them wanting more so they will continue to subscribe to your email marketing campaigns.

You’ll also want to consider your process for following up with customers who have purchased from you. A common mistake of digital marketing campaigns is to end once the sale is complete. Remember, your business is about serving people – whether you like it or not – and the more value you can give to a customer, the better off your business will be.

Don’t just let your customer “walk out the door” with a product. Give them something to make them come back. Every time I go into a store and make a purchase, the salesperson gives me a coupon with a date range on it and a heck of a good deal that makes me want to return during that period.

That is not sleazy sales tactics: I actually do want what the company is offering me, and they are rewarding me for my continued patronage by giving me a good deal in the future. Of course, they are fully aware (while I might not be!) that I’ll probably spend more than is required to get the deal, so they make their money back.

Final Thoughts

When you are ready to launch your digital marketing campaign, remember to be patient with the process, and consider all your options, including consulting with an expert digital marketing firm.

If you want to brave the terrain on your own, give yourself plenty of runway to ensure you don’t run out of money before you see results. You want your campaign to me memorable, and not just because you spent a bunch of money on it.

Keep track of your stats and where your customers are coming from and consider how you can continue to engage them long after the sale is final, and you’ll be well on your way to building a customer base that fits your business and service. 🙂

About the author

Brad Richardson

Brad loves writing about video games almost as much as he loves playing them. Beginning with the original NES, Brad has been playing video games his entire life. His favorite franchises include The Legend of Zelda, Elder Scrolls, Final Fantasy, Pokemon, Doom, and Fire Emblem.